The recent pandemic forced many organizations to quickly put together a Work-From-Home policy. Now that those businesses are starting to open back up and invite their employees to come back to the office, there are a whole new set of policies and procedures to think about. Your IT infrastructure and security may look a little different than what it once was.
Here are 5 things to consider as your employees come back to work:
1. Scan your employees’ laptops and other work devices BEFORE they rejoin the company’s network. It’s a high possibility that those laptops and work devices were used to help a child access homework or for any other non-related work item. Scanning your company’s equipment for any virus-related issue, before they connect, will help protect your internal network.
2. Many companies are providing some employees the option to continue to WFH. If that’s the case, it’s probably a good idea to make sure those employees are using and encrypted virtual private network (VPN) and have it set to expire after a certain period of time. This will decrease the chances of becoming breached and losing any data. For even further protection, we recommend enforcing a two-factor authorization to verify an employee’s identity before granting access to your internal network.
3. Host a debriefing session with your entire team. This should be an information-sharing event among all employees to discuss what went well and what didn’t go well. We can look at what happened as an opportunity to reflect and review the operational and technological side of things and see how we could improve certain items in the future. This event could even help your organization build a business continuity plan.
4. You probably heard about all the hacking attempts that were done while the WFH order was in place. New cyberattack attempts and viruses are created each day. That’s why it’s so important to keep your employees trained and educated on how to keep their systems up-to-date and to recognize certain phishing attempts. If you’re not sure how to do this, or would like a professional to do this for your team, we’re happy to assist. All it takes is one accidental click from one employee and your entire network could be compromised. Having a quarterly educational training session, with quizzes, is highly recommended.
5. Many vendors offered free trials for their software services the last few months. It’s not uncommon for these vendors to require a credit card upon signing up, so that they can start charging you immediately after the short trial period ends. Be sure to discuss with your employees if any new trials were signed-up for, so that you can keep a record and eliminate any unexpected expenses in the near future. On the flip side, now is also a great time to review if you SHOULD be exploring new software platforms that would enable smoother, faster processes.
It can seem overwhelming to think about all the details when it comes to the new transition. Fortunately, that’s where we can help. If you need assistance in scanning laptops, training employees on cybersecurity, or just want a second opinion on something, we would love to talk. Give us a call at 317-SUPPORT or email us at [email protected].